Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer please inform the House how the Morrison government is continuing to strengthen our economy and provide more jobs and greater economic security to hardworking Australian families across the country, and is the Treasurer aware of any alternative approaches?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wentworth for his question and acknowledge his expertise and experience as one of Australia's leading diplomats working in the private sector and being an outstanding advocate of the people in Wentworth. Despite everything that has being thrown at the Australian economy, including the reckless negativity and the fearmongering of those opposite, the Australian economy is roaring back. Unemployment is down, growth is up, and we've seen Australia's economy lead the world. We saw unemployment in May at 5.1 per cent, 115,000 new jobs—85 per cent of those jobs were full-time jobs—and we've now seen more women in work than ever before. When JobKeeper came to an end in March, we saw the member for Corio, the member for Rankin, the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Sydney—

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin!

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

all talk about the devastating and diabolical consequences that would occur. The Leader of the Opposition even said that the economic roof of the Australian economy would come crashing down—they were his words about the end of JobKeeper. The member for Rankin went out and did a video prophesising doom and gloom with the end of JobKeeper. The member for Rankin said that we didn't know what was happening in the towns and suburbs across Australia with the end of JobKeeper. Well, the ABS has told us that, since the end of JobKeeper, 84,000 new jobs have been created.

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

The member for Rankin, who keeps interjecting, said we didn't know what was happening in the towns and the suburbs. Well, he didn't know what was happening in his own towns and suburbs of Queensland, because the unemployment rate has fallen in Queensland since the end of JobKeeper, 24,000 jobs have been created in Queensland, and there are now a record number of Queenslanders in work.

We've also seen, in the March quarter national accounts, economic growth of 1.8 per cent, beating market expectations. We saw farm output at the highest level in seven years and housing investment at the highest level in 17 years. Machinery and equipment, over the last couple of quarters, have been at their strongest in more than a decade, off the back of our economic plan—an economic plan that is lowering taxes, an economic plan that is incentivising investment and an economic plan that is creating more jobs right across the country, including in Queensland.